Syllabus PHIL – 211 Ethics

Professor Barbara Pearson

Office phone: 426 - 3484

Home phone: 384 – 5215

Office: 1019 Lincoln Hall, Room 107

e-mail: Bpearson@boisestate.edu



Course Description: Ethics is concerned with answering questions about what is good, right, and just. In this course, we will examine normative moral theories that have been formulated to guide our decisions and behavior concerning ethical matters. These moral doctrines may conflict or propose different resolutions to a problem or situation; we will examine the reasons various authors have for holding the positions they do. There are three dominant normative theories which we will examine in detail. We will also be concerned with examining other ethical writings, both traditional and contemporary, which address such issues as relativism vs. absolutism, existentialist ethics, feminist ethics, and language theory and the meaning of ethical terms.


Required Text: Ethics: History, Theory, and Contemporary Issues (2nd Edition)
by Stephen Cahn and Peter Markie (Oxford)


Course Requirements and Learning Objectives:

PHIL – 211 is designed to enable students to understand the three main normative ethical theories in the western tradition;
1) to analyze ethical arguments and present criticisms of these various views;
2) to effectively communicate that understanding through the composition of essays, papers, and presentations;
3) to apply theories to contemporary ethical issues.

There will be three essay exams. Each exam will be worth 25 % of the grade. The student will also be required to write one paper, worth 20% of the grade. The final 5 % of the grade will be based on a class presentation.

Missed exams cannot be made up without a legitimate university excuse in writing or prior consent of the instructor. Late papers will receive reduced grades. The student is expected to complete the reading assignments on time and be prepared for each class.

Plagiarism is passing off someone else’s work as your own. If you use someone else’s ideas or words, you must use footnotes as citations and construct a bibliography that supplies proper information for a reader to be able to locate the source. Anyone who blatantly plagiarizes will not receive credit for his/her paper and will fail the course.